I think the time has come to introduce a new frame to the people of America. These people that I refer to our the people who create the middle; not the far-right nor the far-left, but a large portion of America that works day to day and leads busy lives They do not read the paper and watch the news, or otherwise follow the mainstream media let alone read blogs like this. They defiantly do not look into what they hear, they just process it. I believe that, if polled, a large majority of this group (the middle) would say and/or think that our enemies, in Islam, are so because of our culture or religion. I would go out on an edge and say that half of this group believes the same thing of any other adversary of ours, whether it is a diplomatic, economic, or geographical foe. I believe and know that this is false; at the very least it is false with respect to Islamic terrorism. It is neither about our religion nor culture; it is our policies. I think the public is ready to embrace this logic because the logic that has been used so far in the war on terror and the invasion of Iraq has become sour to the average American; those Americans who decide elections.
We had better change our thinking and policies; else we get stuck in a cyclic war that protects the very policies that causes Arabs, Muslims, whomever worldwide to staff the ranks of the global Islamic insurgency.
I’ve known this for some time, as I expect most readers have as well; but it needs to be repeated and projected to the middle. It is not the myth that we are a nations of infidels, a nation of freedom, or a representation of a just civilization that causes young men to fight us and martyr themselves en masse. Thomas Friedman almost had it when he wrote (emphasis added) “…we have to prove that we are serious, and that we understand that many off these terrorists hate our existence, not just our policies.” in his 13 September 2005 column entitled World War III. This phrasing was due to raw emotion and alarm from the attacks of 2001, but it stuck and the Bush administration and the RNC have adopted it and they have won with it. They currently wield it now.
It is our policies; it is not the peoples fault, it is our governments.
The thing is, is that these policies are right in front of everybody and certainly available to the MSM. These are six points that top-priority target and propagandist Osama bin Laden refers to repeatedly in communication after communication with the Western World. These points are repeated for a reason; because it gains strong support from every nook and cranny of the Islamic world. They are, as prepared in the book Imperial Hubris by Michael Scheuer.
- U.S. support for Israel that keeps Palestinians in the Israelis’ thrall.
- U.S. and other Western troops on the Arabian Peninsula.
- U.S. occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan.
- Support for Russia, India, and China against their Muslim militants.
- U.S. pressure on Arab energy producers to keep oil prices low.
- U.S. support for apostate, corrupt, and tyrannical Muslim governments.
A few of these are feasible, some are not; but until something changes in American foreign policy, the above issues will sustain this insurgency regardless of whether we catch, kill, or otherwise marginalize bin Laden. The insurgency will continue long after Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Syria, North Korea, et cetera.
These are all current policies, and some may say that to change or alter these policies is a concession. Well, is that better than generating an enemy while fighting it? If that is your logic than we will soon be fighting ourselves. Following up with; Does American survival rest on the political, military and economic support for Israel? Is our freedom and democracy best spread through fire? Is oil worth supporting tyrant regimes and/or positioning troops within Arab lands; thus flaming resentment? Do you know that the three holiest sites in Islam are in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Israel/Palestine? Would it not be smart to create some serious thought into the renewable energy issue? How many lives per barrel of oil? What is that price now and what could it be?
I think it is time to reach out, again, to the middle. Now is the time. The emotion and the need for optimism are over; truth is slowly permeating into the conventional conscience. With the ambiance surrounding the Republican leadership, right now,
we should try to reframe this issue away from the `they hate my religion‘ or `freedom, culture, SUV whatever…‘ rhetoric of the Republican mouthpieces, and into one addressing the root problem. Our policies abroad caused this era long before September 2001; and with a few minor changes, adjustments or reassessments we could do more for the war on terror than any quantity of currency could hope to do. After all, how secure/stable/much better is our situation now than when compared to that of 10 September 2001?
